Alternative Famous Firsts
Izzy (@izzthisthingon on Instagram)
Morning Show Host
KDKB (ALT AZ 93.3)/Phoenix
I worked afternoons on my college radio station, WPGU/Champaign. It wasn't a university-funded radio station, and it was run entirely by students. It was like a crash course in radio. I loved every minute of it, so I decided to change my original career path of Psychology, and continue on in radio!
My sister took me to see The Academy Is... at House of Blues in Chicago when I was 16! I remember being in awe of how packed that place was, and everyone singing along was electric. Definitely a memorable show.
Slipknot - IOWA. My parents didn't want me listening to it, so they kept taking it away from me, and I'd have to buy another one. I also got to interview Corey Taylor later in my career, so that was a really cool full-circle moment!
Brent Smith from Shinedown. Always a super nice and friendly guy, making that interview a breeze. I remember being insanely nervous, but he helped keep me calm!
I was working Nights at a Top 40 station in Springfield, IL--my first radio job out of college. I was too busy chatting with my buddy who did nights on the Country station next door to realize I forgot to take the log out of Manual. There was dead air for at least 3 minutes. Luckily, my boss never listened to my show since he did mornings, so I never got in trouble.
Jason Keller
Afternoon Drive & Production/Imaging Director
WEQX/Manchester, Vermont
Weekend Overnights at 106.7 WIZN in Burlington, Vermont.
It was 1982, I was nine years old, my sister was eleven, and our parents, and uncle, took us to see the legendary Lou Rawls perform at Resorts International Casino in Atlantic City, NJ. Arsenio Hall, years before his talk show, did a great comedy set to open the night. Not exactly a kid favorite, I recall my sister and I being somewhat confused with the concert choice.
First vinyl as a kid: John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John, “You’re The One That I Want” from the Grease soundtrack. First CD as a teenager: Metallica “The Black Album.”
Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty. His genuine ability to be conversational really stood out to me.
I inadvertently turned off a sports talk station in a building I was working in. The studio was empty, they were running a syndicated show, and I thought I’d work on a production project. I carelessly hit a few buttons on the board and cut the feed of the show (for a few minutes). Our front desk person, Rebecca, quickly came down the hall to tell me listeners were calling and complaining about dead air on the sports station. I improvised an answer, took no responsibility for the issue, and reassured her that I could fix the problem. She left the studio, I simply hit one button to get the station back on, and I never did production in there again.
Gregr - @heygregr on social media
Mornings
KNDD (107.7 The End)/Seattle
KPEK in Albuquerque, NM, airing traffic during the PD's voice tracked show while he was in promo meetings etc. I was 15 and remember thinking the traffic guy calling himself Skywalker was SO COOL.
OMG it was Korn at the Wool Warehouse, Albuquerque, in 1996 - when Jonathan Davis brought out the bagpipes we lost it. Tiny venue, terrible neighborhood, grungy band with a metal cover of nursery rhymes how ridiculous. We all wanted seven-string Ibanez guitars after that!
A got a few tapes as a kid but my first non-C&C Music Factory album was Pearl Jam's Vs. My much older cousin was so proud of me and bought me Ten. I always like Vs better because it has "Animal" on it.
I have literally no idea. I can't even remember what station it was at. I remember my first terrible interview (DM me and i'll share the artist) but they were so cool until we turned the microphones on and then they put down their sunglasses and were total jerks. And my first amazing interview was Rob Zombie coming into KFMA in Tucson with his supermodel wife and their pet pug, Dracula, and he played records for an hour. He saw my personal CD book in the studio and started pulling my old punk rock records out - misfits, minor threat, DK and playing those and I felt SO COOL. He was a really sweet guy.
My first dead air at KNDD - I got done at 6p and tracked until 7p - at 7:15p I get a call that we had dead air and it was somehow my fault (it was not). I lived 20 minutes away and made it to the station in 17 minutes and just as I got there someone else finally just went and hit play again. I somehow still had to have the lecture - insert Liam Lynch *whatevah.*
